CAMBRIDGE, MA – A new study out of the Harvard School of Nutrition shows that children who eat bags of Halloween candy have higher IQs.

CAMBRIDGE, MA – A new study out of the Harvard School of Nutrition shows that children who eat bags of Halloween candy have higher IQs.

The comprehensive study took place over the last forty years. A world renowned nutritional expert, Dr. Rosa Blanton of the Oxford University, worked closely with the Harvard scientists who studied candy and its effects on children.

Generally, children that eat a lot of candy tend to do poorly on standardized tests, but children that eat Halloween candy tend to overperform (but a wide margin) on standardized tests and those children that ate large quantities of Halloween candy year after year, had the highest IQs of all children evaluated in the study.

“We were not surprised that eating too much sugary candies had an adverse effect on children, but we were shocked to see the positive benefits of Halloween candy,” said Dr. Blanton.

These candies – in particular – raised the IQ of children in the study by as much as 30 points.

Resee’s Peanut Butter Cups

Snickers

Pop Rock

Kit Kat

Sour Patch Kids

Willy Wonka Candies

Three Musketeers

One mother in the study described the effect of Halloween candy on her son:

“My son was basically an idiot. I hate to say that because I love him, but he did poorly in all his classes, until he went trick-or-treating in 2009. He came back with a huge back of loot and proceeded to eat the entire bag in a week. We were stunned to see his test scores increase rapidly and now… he is a straight A student.”

Girls’ IQ scores increased even more than boys.”Girls who ate a lot of Halloween candy had an average IQ of 138, while boy who ate large quantities of Halloween candy had an average IQ of 131,” said Blanton.”

President Obama and the First Lady are trying to get parents to give out Halloween fruit this year, but scientists at Harvard are trying to encourage parents to do the opposite.

“Kids need candy. Their brains demand it,” said Dr. Chan Muk of Harvard. “There’s a reason that children crave candy and that’s because the growing brain needs it. Candy helps them to become smarter, faster.”